Three friends in Aunt Leokadia’s attic uncover a leather-bound book hidden in a mirror’s reflection, and it awakens feelings they cannot control.
The old mirror in Aunt Leokadia’s attic had fascinated Martina, Wojtek, and Olek for years. Every summer they climbed past the stacked trunks and yellowed boxes, ducking under the slanted beams to rummage through the house’s forgotten remains. But tonight the attic felt different. The storm outside rattled the roof tiles, and the air seemed to hold its breath.
Lightning split the window and turned the far corner white. In the mirror’s frame, among the warped reflections of dust and old furniture, there was something that had never been there before: a narrow cupboard standing just beyond the glass. Olek stepped closer first, unable to resist the pull of it. At the cupboard’s base lay a thick book bound in cracked leather, marked with an eye ringed by twisting serpents.
"Look at this," he murmured, lifting it out. The cover was cold enough to sting. When he brushed away the dust, faint blue letters surfaced as if they had been waiting for light. Martina felt a sharp unease settle in her chest. Wojtek’s pulse kicked hard against his throat.
They opened the book.
The first page did not read so much as it seemed to enter them. Joy flashed and vanished. Then anxiety. Then shame, anger, and a strange, helpless grief that did not belong to any of them, and somehow belonged to all three at once. The attic tightened around them. The storm outside faded beneath the roar building in their heads.
A movement shivered behind the mirror.
Shadows began to gather there, pulling free from the edges of the frame, dark and fluid, shaped by something deeper than light. They thickened with every feeling the book stirred up, as if the glass were feeding on what the boys and girl could not say aloud. Olek backed away, suddenly pale. Martina’s mouth went dry. Even the air seemed to turn against them.
Then a whisper slid out of the mirror, soft as a hand over glass: "Are you sure you want to know what your insides are hiding?"
The attic went dark.